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IMPROVED PASrIENINGr FOR *RAILROAD RAILS.V

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ALL WHOM VIT MAY GONOERN:

Be it known thatql, HORACE T. LOVE, of Vermillion Township, in Marshall county,'in the'State of Kansas,` have' invented a newfand improved Mode of Fastening Down the Iron Rails and the Chairs of Rails of Railways, and for uses analogous; and I do 'hereby declare that the followingis a full and exact description lthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the `letters of reference marked thereon, making'a part-of .this specification. v

To fasten` down-rails and chairs of rails on railroads, the fastener, in order to fulfill its purpose properly, lnusthave the power to bring the rail down tight upon its woodensubstructure, and then, without relaxationfto hold it there, as against all ordinary strain, and must also be able te let go its hold, when desirable, without injury either to itself or to the wooden substructure into which it is made to penetrate. Itmust, therefore, be, in turn, both a fastener and a loosener, as may be desired. If a common' spike, four or live `incheslong'and a half an inch thick, be driven into a railroad tie, its hooked-head, when driven home, will bring the rail down on to the tie; but the strain of the first heavy train,'by its weight, velocity, and vibration, will loosen the spike and break its hold on the wood; moisture will enter thehole,-the spike will rust, the, rails,l jostled about, will move up and down, to and frio, by the passing trains; the wheels, by continual impinging, battering up the ends ofthe rails, and the rails in turn sloughing out the face of the wheels, soon render them eccentric and unt for use; and though an army of operatives is employed to keep roads in repair at countless expense, yet, in spite of all precautions, vigilance, and activity, the rails are forever loose, and every now and then a train leaps from the track and plunges headlong to a heap of ruins, to the frightful destruction of human life and loss ofuntold treasure; and yet this'same hook-headed spike to-day is 4the usual iron-rail 'fastener of the railways of the whole world. Various have been the modes devised to remedy this universal defect in rail fasteners, but/hitherto all have been abortve. lThe bearded and the self-clinching spikehave both been tried; but they, having holding power, suicient, do so lacerate and split up the ties, when they have to be withdrawn to liberate the rails for repair and other purposes, they have come to be regardedas a failure and condemned accordingly. Wore recently the screw-spike, so called, has been tried, consisting of a doublehooked or T head; and this, while having desirable power to hold against any ordinary strain and toliberate the rails at pleasure, fails in the vital point that it contains no mechanical principle whereby to secure the screwing down tight of the rail upon the tie, thus leaving the very evil untouched which irstofall should have been removed. To illustrate, the single thread of this screw as made is of about one-quarter of an inch gauge, and will of course sink the screw that distance in the wood'at each revolution of the screw, and half that distance at every half revolution. Now, as this screw-spike must be turned half way round to bring its hooked head into position to get a bearing on the lange of the rail, it follows that whenever the distance between hook and flange in screwing it down is less than'half the gauge of the screw (less than one-eighth of an inch'in thi's case) the hook will of necessity, in making its half revolution, impingc against the edge of the flange, instead of getting a bearing upon the upper surface of thevange, and the consequence is that play to the distance of oneeighth ofan 'inch or less is left between the hooked head and flange. The rail is left loose; andthis evil, when rails come to be relaid upon old ties, is greatly increased. ln this case' the spike driven into a new place, and near the end, and the tie no longer green, is sure to split it. The old hole and new crack, being 'exposed to rain and snow, rot speedily ensues, and the consequence is thatthe tie itself becomes useless and inust be immediately replaced by new, or the road must be abandoned. To these imperfect and faulty modes of fastening down the railsof railways, whereby they are always found loose, I have invented a complete remedy. My invention consists- First. In an auger or auger bit, as shown Figure 1 or Figure 2, capable of making a hole having two diameters, thelarger whereof is at the mouth or top of the hole. l

Second. In a key, shown in Figure 3, to lock this bit into the machine, whereby it is operated, and to gauge it so as to bore the desirable depth of hole, particularly the depth of that part thereof having the larger diameter. The counterpart to which key is shownpin the catch n in shank of the bit in figs. 1 and 2.

Third. In' a screw-fastener, shown in Figure 4, having the under part of its head in form cam-like, whose inclination is inversely to the inclination of the thread of the screw and of no less gauge than `that of the thread, the side ot which head is truncated by a line passing through a b c d in fig. 4, tangentv to the shank. ot' the screw. Figure 5 shows truncated heads of screw-fasteners, a be d e Zm no p, whereofl b c film 011 show screwhead, in position to hold down iron rail, R, tight and iirm upon the substructure of wood, lV, which here is represented :is one piece, instead of ties, to correspond with model. a e n show the position of screw-heads in 5 when turned to liberate the rail when taking up the same.

Having mounted a common hand-car on rails laid, aiiix to its projecting beam a common double-crank auger-borer, or other contrivance, into the socket of whose spindle, adjusted to bore at the desirable place, I insert ythe bit, g. 1 or 2, and to lock I turn the key, 3, inserted in a hole at a right angle .to the socket, holding the shank of the bit so that a portion of the key at n will occupy the catch n in the shank of the bitA To unlock., I tii'rn the key halt` way round, so that the catch n in the key will be occupied by ".hc shank of the auger bit, Having locked the bit and gauged it by putting the key in 72. or in n", according to the depth i desire, I bore the hole, enlarging its mouth by the cutting edge, e, constructed on -the pod c? the bit, suiiicien to admit .the shank, 7c, of the screw-fastener without splitting the tile, the smaller part t' 'the hole being the same diameteres that of the core of screw part of the fastener, leaving the thread of the s to be embedcd in the solid wood when it is screwed down. On screwing in the fastener, as indicated, the .i .lion of the under side of its head being no less downward than that of the thread of the screw upa-ai d, .t 'l ws that the under surface of .the head of the screw when turned down will of necessityhe in position always to nd its bearing upon the upper .side of the flange of the rail, that bearing being necessitated by that inclination, since -that inclination 'prevents approach 'of the under surface ofthe head toward the iiangc, unless it is in position to bear -on the iiange screwed down. To liberate and lift the rail from the tie, it is only necessary to reverse the screw less than one revolution so as to bring the line of truncation parallel with the line of the edge of the rail, as shown in a-e and n in iig. 5.

The advantages of my invention are numerous, some of which I will indicate. By this mode fasten the 4rail down tight and hold it there, the holding power of a single screw substantially of the size andiweight of an ordinary railroad spike, -or about half a pound, having been found by experiment, when turned into alive- 'timber te,te be from five thousand to ton thousand pounds, as the wood was more or less dense. 'l'.en fasteners,

the ordinary number for one rail on five Aties, wouldfhold tight against any ordinary strain, no matter how great the speed of the train, how steep the grade, or how short the curve; and-as the rail becomes indented into .the

tie, and the screw-fastener is turned down accordingly, the holding power of the fastener is only increased `rather than diminished, as in case of the ordinary spike, its penetration being deeper with 'the screw in the wood.

My mode of fastening mustersI out of service for other labor multitudes of employees incident to roads with the common spike to keep them in repair. There are no drawing out and driving in of hook-heads, and no ,splitting and lacerating of ties consequent thereto; none 'of breaking and remaking, and not half the rotting .and replacing; no wearing and tearing by continual impinging of' wheels and rails; no .new earsand engines to be built, and no loss of lives and property to be paid for from casualties contingent upon keeping rails forever loose; while the rst cost of laying tracks with my screw-fasteners is incomparably less than that of the hookheaders, counting in the number lost and destroyed consequent to their being withdrawn to repair. In short, my mode of fastening down the rails and chairs of railways will prevent the expenditure of millions of money for repairing and otherwise incident to the present mode of fastening with hook-headers, and will, when adopted, increase the value of two thousand millions of stock capital invested in the railway enterprise. I make the Vhead bevelling to correspon-d to the counter-bevel of the flange of the rail, the screw pointed, but not otherwise tapering, and of single thread, as 'best suited for its purpose; its thread out, and not moulded, as more convenient for a model; the head round, with one truncation, as best su'ited for illustration; but I do not restrict or limit my invention to said bevel, the shape of screw, and kind of thread, shape of head, whether round, square, longer or shorter, oblong, regular or irregular, single-hooked or double-hooked, or otherwise, so long as the principle thereof is unchanged.

Butwhat I claim as my invention in themode of fastening down the rails and chairs of rails of railways,

and for analogous purposes, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Such an inclination of the under surface'of a screw-head, truncated in its relation to the gauge of the thread of theiscrew, as to necessitate a bearing of that surface upon the flange of the rail so as to make the rail tight when screwed down, and the rail released by a reverse operation of the screw, the truncation being tangential to the shank ofthe screw, in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

HORACE T. LOVE` Nitnessesz '.T. Dawson JAMES,-

WM. N. RoAcH. 

